Ismea

In 10 years, agri-food exports have grown by 87%. In 2023 12 billion investments

According to the Ismea report on agriculture, the inequalities in the redistribution of value along the supply chain are evident: farmers receive 7 euros out of every 100 spent on fresh agricultural products and only 1.5 on processed ones

21 November 2024

2' min read

A healthy sector, punctuated by evident inequalities in the redistribution of value along the supply chain and which still suffers too much from foreign dependence on certain raw materials (or products). This is the identikit of the agricultural and food industry in the Report 2024 drawn up by Ismea..

The gross fixed investments in agriculture in 2023 reached 12 billion euro, 2.7% of those of the entire economy, in the context of a significant increase in real terms, which in the last decade has affected all sectors, including agriculture (+43.5%). "These are investments," said the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, "that strengthen our world, our economy and that have been lacking for too many years.

The general supply rate of the sector - understood as the ratio between the value of domestic production and that of consumption - has reached 99.2% in 2023. There is no shortage, however, of suffering sectors. In particular," Ismea's analysts point out, "the coexistence of an agriculture with a deficit in some products and an export-oriented food industry, determines situations of significant dependence on foreign countries in some sectors for the supply of raw materials to be transformed into typical Made in Italy products. This trend has been accentuated in recent years in step with the food industry's increased ability to penetrate foreign markets and the concomitant reduced availability of domestic raw materials due to the impact of climate change.

It is the case of maize, soybeans, coffee, extra virgin olive oil, live cattle, hams and shoulders of pigs, soft and durum wheat, soya beans, palm oil and soya oil cake. These products are the most critical in terms of supply, having self-sufficiency rates ranging from 0% in the case of coffee, to over 60% in the case of hams; but it is maize and soybean that are the most critical in terms of supply. For both, imports have increased considerably over the last twenty years, leading to adrastic reduction in the supply rate (to 46% for maize and 32% for soya in 2023).

Despite some shortcomings, the sector enjoys good health and great prestige beyond borders, as certified by export, which in 2023 touched EUR 64 billion. More generally, the growth of exports between 2014 and 2023 was 87%. Imports also grew, albeit at a lower rate (+55%) and the balance improved, although it remained negative.

Despite this performance, Ismea highlights how structural imbalances persist in the distribution of value along the agri-food chain, with the phases further downstream - logistics and distribution - capable of retaining the highest share of the final value of the product, to the detriment above all of the agricultural phase. The analysis of the value chain certifies how out of every one hundred euro spent by the consumer on the purchase of fresh agricultural produce, less than 20 euro remunerates the added value of farmers who, once depreciation and wages are subtracted, are left with a profit of 7 euro, compared to around 19 euro in the trade and transport macro-sector.